Bait: A dark erotic thriller (Hunter & Prey Book 2) Read Online Free

fingers into something I could hold on to for dear life.  
    “What happened to your fingers?”
    “Oh, this?” I said, looking down at the scars and crooked bits as if it was nothing. I caught her gaze again, feeling emotion leak out of my face although I tried to keep it there. “You wouldn’t believe the whole story if I told you, trust me.” That part was true. But because I was here for a purpose, I couldn’t leave it at that. “But the short version is, I was in a skiing accident.”
    “A skiing accident?” Alison echoed, sounding that perfect bit of concerned that told me that she didn’t buy my bullshit.
    “As I said, it’s terribly complicated.” I added a light laugh that choked my soul but sounded moderately convincing. “You know how these things go.” Then I flicked my eyes to Darren again, letting my gaze latch onto the scar that was visible above the collar of his shirt. It had healed well—as had to be expected, if it healed at all—but didn’t have a tampered look to it. Not that I had expected him to hide it, but it still gave me immense satisfaction to see it there. Pitching my tone to a light simper, I caught his gaze again. “I see you’ve recovered well from your, what was it? Rafting accident, right?”
    I almost had given up on getting a reaction out of him, but he gave a curt nod, his eyes still aflame. Oh, he really didn’t like me being here, behaving like this. But then I had a very good idea of how and where he wanted me.
    “How is life treating you these days?” Ray questioned when no one else said anything, turning the tension between us up several notches. Only a blind man—or woman—would have been oblivious to it. With his action, Ray was giving me the perfect stage. The smile he got for that was real—something I hadn’t thought possible before all the shit hit the fan. That he seemed terribly amused by my mere presence I didn’t mind.
    “Good, good. I spent some time on vacation. Lazing around on the beach, basking in the sun, enjoying life…”
    The polar opposite of what life had been like for me since I’d last seen these people, but I sounded convincing enough with my simper. Looking back to Darren, I let my lips curve into a teasing smile. “But, you know how it is with us workaholic types. We can only let go for so long. Now that I’m back in the city, I thought I should tell my nearest and dearest about the good news.”
    That got me a momentary sarcastic grin from Alison, reminding me of our conversations. She had absolutely no illusions about my job, and that deeply ingrained sense of realism was something I’d always admired about her.
    “So it is business rather than pleasure that brings you back?” she asked, letting that grin turn back into a jovial smile.
    “I don’t see why there has to be a distinction between the two,” I said, laughing softly. Part of me wanted to glance at Ray, but I respected Alison too much to do that. With Darren, I had fewer reservations there, and the flare of anger in his eyes I got in return was most satisfying.
    “Back to the daily grind it is?” Ray asked, stressing “grind” so much that I felt like rolling my eyes at him, but of course I didn’t. Instead I shrugged.
    “Actually, I think I’ll switch into upper management. You know how it goes—when you’re young, you don’t mind working yourself until you’re sore and worn out, but once you get as old as I am—“
    “You don’t look a day over twenty-five,” Ray replied, snickering. “Or at least parts of you don’t.”
    It didn’t go by me unnoticed that a muscle jumped in Alison’s jaw, but the joke was so bad that I didn’t even deign to respond to it. I was also running out of time, and, quite frankly, my nerves were as taut as steel cables; there was only so much they could take before they’d snap—and standing no more than three feet away from Darren was wearing down my defenses quicker than I could rebuild them.
    “Well, it